11.16.2015

Giveaway: The Modern Natural Dyer by Kristine Vejar

Dear friends,

Today is a very special day. Today, I'm thrilled to host a book giveaway of my friend and fellow
slow-fashion artist, Kristine Vejar's, gorgeous new dye book, The Modern Natural Dyer. Have you seen this beautiful book? It's been traveling through the Internet at rapid speed with guest appearances on beloved sites like Selvedge and Design Sponge and many other beautiful, virtual spaces. Each time I see this book featured in a new location I cheer a little bit, oftentimes aloud, I confess.

Kristine is a dear friend, a fellow fiber artist, a generous spirit, a thoughtful advocate, but also someone I respect SO much for the work she's done to build community and support slow fiber, slow fashion, and sustainable textiles throughout the Bay Area and beyond. She's the founder and owner of the ever-inspiring shop A Verb for Keeping Warm (AVFKW) in Oakland, CA where she sells yarn, fabric, sewing patterns, books, tools, offers workshops and special events, and where she conducted all the research for her gorgeous new book.

If you live anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area I highly recommend you sign-up for the AVFKW mailing list so you can attend the wonderful fiber events and workshops hosted in this magical space. Not to mention, you can purchase the book, the dye kits, a dye journal, and oodles of other wonderful crafty goods from the AVFKW website. (Hint, hint Christmas shoppers.)

The Modern Natural Dyer must be one of the most gorgeous craft books I've ever held in my hands. Is that an overstatement? Well, I don't think so. It's actually that pretty. I first got an early glimpse of this beautiful book this summer when Kristine joined me for my Social Textile Experiments on Market Street in our tiny art studio on wheels--Range Studio.

I saw the cover and I gasped. So pretty! Then I flipped through the photographs and I paused at each one to notice the dye projects, the raw materials, and the incredible composition and intention in every single photograph. The book exudes Kristine's refined sense of design, beautiful aesthetic, and also her incredible insight into the natural dye world. I want to make every project in this book!

The dye recipes are fantastic, the projects are inspiring and easy to follow, and the book leaves you feeling like you've just taken a course with Kristine without ever leaving your home. Gorgeous photography, stunning styling, thoughtful writing, inspired how-to projects, and brimming with in-depth information from the author's lifelong work with natural dyes. I actually have a pot of foraged walnuts soaking in my busted-up laundry room as I type--the beginnings of a natural dye project from this book.

Now, I have the very great honor of not just reviewing this book but offering one lucky reader one free copy. Hooray, a giveaway! And, if that wasn't enough, Kristine has also generously offered to send that one lucky winner a free dye kit of her/ his choice. (Choose from the four dye kits on the AVFKW site.) Yes, that's right. You can win a book AND a dye kit just because it could be your lucky natural dye day.

You just have to go over to the AVFKW website and decide which dye kit you'd like to call your own. Then come back to my blog (or my Instagram post, or both) and leave a comment with the dye kit you'd like to win. Maybe say something else about what you'd like to dye or why you think this work is completely and totally awesome and could quite possibly change the world! (Okay, that last part is just my personal pitch for slow fiber work. Eh hem.)

Next Monday I'll announce the winner in the comments section of this post. You can enter here on my blog or on my Instagram feed and I'll choose one winner at random. It's pretty much like your birthday and this blog post rolled up into one. Trust me, you want to win this book and this dye kit too. And if you don't win, or you can't wait to see if you might win, or you just know you need a second copy for a family member or friend, then head over to Kristine's website and purchase a copy for yourself. I bet you'll find something else over there you might want too.

I couldn't be happier for the author, the book, the contribution to the natural dye world, and this very important advocacy for sustainable fiber and slow textiles and more simply some encouragement for foraging for natural dye materials, raising dye plants in your garden, or even just purchasing the dye materials from AVFKW. Hooray for this work seeing its way into publishing and textile arts.

I'm convinced, the better we understand the process of growing, harvesting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, sewing, knitting, and otherwise making textiles the better our chances to do this work in a sustainable, thoughtful, ethical, beautiful, and FUN manner. This book is all that at once. Kristine, this book is a work of genius, my friend, 1000 congratulations.

41 comments:

This book is TO DYE FOR (ha ha). I have one, but would love to gift one, and would love to get my hands on the Flowers at my Fingertips kit. I can't decide what project to start first, but am thinking about some overdyed stash yarn with some walnuts that I collected just as they fell this fall....! Thanks for the giveaway!

I have seen the book pop up everywhere on social media and blogs. I have tried dyeing yarn twice and it is so addictive and fun. I would LOVE to learn more about it, experiment more. Why would this book change the world? I think it is so important that we re-learn things about the nature that surrounds us, the limitless possibilities is offers, and learn to respect it...

So beautiful! I have been playing around with natural dyes for years, but never at this level and it would be fun to learn how to do it properly. And the Flowers At My Fingertips Kit would be great to try out.

But of course slow cloth will change the world! Weaving, dyeing, embroidering, knitting, printing, sewing mending-- it is thrilling to see it them spread. What joy to be part of it and to keep learning. To that end, I'd love the Flowers at my Fingertips kit. Though I've been dying the wool for my tapestries and knitting for decades, I'm a newbie when it comes to cellulose fibers. And where better to learn then from The Modern Natural Dyer?

I think the socks kit with madder dye looks like great fun - and I like that the socks are organic cotton. My mum's going on a fabric dyeing course this week using Procion dyes, and I know she'd love to try out natural dyes too.

As i love to play around with cloth, intuitive embroidery and dyeing I would be thrilled to receive this book as a gift! I never tried to dye with flowers so the flower dye kit really spoke to me. Bring it on, it's time to try something new!

What a lovely giveaway! I've experimented dyeing yarn with the grapes on our farm and loved it.. It would be so fun to try out some new experiments. The indigo kit looks so fun. I'd love to try it out and maybe overdye a hideous quilt I have in the closet.

I too am absolutely smitten by this book! Like another poster, I already have a copy, but I have plans to give this book as gifts this holiday. It is informative and inspiring and has made me look at color specifically and craft and the textile industry in general with a more careful eye. I purchased the Sock Hop kit and it was perfect and so fun. I would love to try the indigo kit. I am fascinated by this plant and the differences in its use all around the world. I desperately want to knit the indigo wedge cardigan pattern from the book, and the Waves kit would give me a first taste of the magic of indigo. The slow fiber movement can totally change the world!! :) Thanks so much for hosting this giveaway!!

Such a beautiful book! I would choose the sock kit in cochineal. I am still using the sashiko threads and stitching techniques from your wonderful class last year at Britex Fabrics.Thank you Katrina, and all the best in your new home.

This book looks so amazing. I've done some chemical dyeing and the smells and fumes only underscore how important the natural dye process is. I'd love the indigo kit - an indigo vat has been on my to-do list for a while now.

Flowers at my Fingertips for me - I love flowers! I have been dyeing for years with commercial dyes but have a longing to dye with flowers, and have grown some black pansies for this purpose. All I need now is some time to get started! This book and kit would be a great impetus for this.

Choices choices!~ I love socks, so the Sock Hop Kit would be my choice, but the colors I am leaning towards weld, but cochineal is calling my name too! I already darn socks, so a natural dye would make a great compliment. Plus I could change the world one pair at a time!

This book looks fabulous! and ALL of the kits! Squee! I'd love to try the flowers at my fingertips kit. I have a gallon sized freezer bag full of pokeweed berries; I was thrilled to see a plant growing in our garden this year and insisted that we let it be so that I could experiment with dyes. I have some natural alpaca/merino blended wool that is begging to be dyed. Figure I'll save this project for a cold winter weekend. Any way - thanks for the giveaway. On another note, I just did some sashiko mending again this past weekend and am still very grateful for your workshop last fall (lots of darned and mended pants later).

I've been looking at this book for some time online. I have 4 other natural dye books so it seemed redundant. Now that I can see the images inside I'm coveting it.I choose Waves Bandana Indigo Kit for me. I've dyed with other dyes but never indigo!

Winter is on our doorstep here in Central NY so the Northwoods hat dye kit is the perfect remedy. I would sneak a skein or two of sock yarn into the dye pot to share with my mom, who has mad knitting skills.

The book looks amazing. I have done some dyeing before but with commercial products. I would love to try and go natural. The photography looks amazing. Torn between the hat or sock kit ....ok Northwoods hat kit if I was lucky enough to win:-)

Oooh, I've just had a look and all the kits look amazing! I've done and taught some eco-dyeing, it's the whole sustainability ethos I try to follow and share, which is why this post and give away make me feel supper excited and happy. If I win, I'd like the socks kit, please, to keep my feet nice and cosy in this Irish rainy weather :)

This book is just beautiful! I love seeing all of the possible colors and color combinations. Now that the weather is cooling off, I think I would love to make that Northwoods hat - it would be so awesome to know I had dyed the yarn myself!

Jane Anne Cohen was the winner with her comment on Instagram. (Thanks to the random number generator.) Hooray, Jane! Thank you all for participating in this giveaway. I hope you'll head over to A Verb for Keeping Warm's website and consider a copy of this GORGEOUS book. xoxo,k.